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September 30, 2013

We had 10 people link up to the Quilt Along this weekend and you can see the links to all of the posts here. The winner of the fat quarter of hand dyed fabric is #10, Barb!

If you are interested in making a Fractured quilt along with us you can join in at any time and you do not need to report your status each week. I'll draw a winner from each week's participants no matter who they are.

I did something yesterday that I haven't done in a very long time. I took almost the whole day "off". I worked on my quilt for Paula Nadelstern for about an hour and I spent the rest of the day just watching football. I'll usually sew while watching TV but no this time. It was a good break.

Today I will get back to the "Paula quilt". I've finished the piecing and it's about half quilted so I'm doing well toward meeting the deadline. The hardest part is building the blocks from a limited range of symmetrical fabrics and I'm past that so most of my stress is gone too. Now I'm just enjoying the quilting process.

I can't show you the quilt or fabrics but I can show you this EQ file of the layout. I used the same sashing that I used in my Grandmother's Choice symmetry quilt but set this one on point. I can't wait to share it because I like it even better than last year's quilt.

I've been listening to the second volume of the Elvis Presley biography while working on this quilt. I said in my review that I was never a big Elvis fan but these books have given me an appreciation for his talent, charisma and influence on music. These are long books but they don't seem long at all. I'm totally engrossed.

That's all that's going on here. Check out what everyone else is doing at Patchwork Times.

September 27, 2013

This week I will get the center blocks done. You can see where I am selecting the fabrics for each block of the center section.

How are you doing on yours? As a reminder the pattern is in this book. I've found that the instructions require a little fudging on your part. Depending on the angle of the cut for each block unit, the pieces might not end up exactly 4.5" square. I've decided to go with it and I do a little adjustment as I put the blocks together and it's working out just fine.

Add your link below to a blog post or photograph of your progress to be entered in the drawing for a hand dyed fat quarter. You can also share your photos in the Fractured QAL Flickr Group.

Click on this link to add your progress and to see other quilts in process. You will be entered into a drawing for a fat quarter of hand dyed fabric. the link box will remain open until Monday.

The block that I'm using this week is called Irish Logs. It's a pretty complex block but you get some cook secondary designs from blocks like these. I tried to save each iteration to show you what a difference small changes can make.

I started with straight blocks in a horizontal arrangement and I stuck with the horizontal set all through.

I didn't like the look of partial blocks on the edges so I edited the block to create some border blocks. I like this.

All I changed here was to use a lighter value of the yellow for the background and to use the yellow in the borders. I think it made a big difference and makes the quilt less harsh.

All I did here was change one red triangle to a medium value which makes the whole quilt much more interesting.

Here I changed the red to purple-red. Not much difference from the red.

Here I basically switched values so that the background is dark and the details of the block are light values. In all of these I used the Warm Color Wheel gradient.

Here's a version using the Cool gradient and the dark purple to bring the stars forward.

This one uses more red-purple than purple and extends the light green-yellow background into the outside border. I like this one a lot.

Finally, here's one using the red gradient with green-blue for a Christmas version. I like this one too.

Sally Papin is an artist who works in several mediums. She created this beautiful Heron wall hanging using the Abundance gradient. You can see some detail shots of the wall hanging on the Etsy listing.

Sally agreed to let me introduce her to you.

First,
would you tell us about the inspiration for this new piece and how you went
about creating it.

I spend a lot of time
with my photography and out at a National Wildlife Refuge called Hagerman
National Wildlife Refuge in Sherman, TX.
My favorite time out there is right when the sun comes up and the birds
and wildlife are really active. I feature some of my photography on my photo blog and my Flickr site.

When the light is right and the sky is just
a bit overcast the most amazing colors emerge and mirror reflections on the
water, and its this that gives me ideas I can use in my fiber art. The cranes and egrets are the most fun to
watch, they are great fisher’s of anything in the water. I use to try and use more bland colors for
my birds and backgrounds but in the last couple years I have been adding more
and more color.

Hummingbird Garden

How
did you get into fiber art and quilting?
I
am a big lover of textiles and came from a spinning and weaving era in the
1980’s. I had big floor looms, 2 wheels
and loads of fleece and silk I carded and spun.
I hated leaving that behind, and so I eventually found myself years later
exploring fiber arts with fabric and pictorial quilting with raw edge appliqué. One little swatch of fabric can take me in
a direction I didn’t see coming or something I have had in my stash makes me
think – Oh this would be so fantastic used in a certain way.

Sky

What
inspires you?
. I love taking photos and re-creating
ideas in fabric. I can use photos as
part of my art which has led to ideas
like a trio of Lemurs (see photo
below). I have done several sets of
trios of various subject matter but it really takes something special that
works with long and skinny to accomplish the look I am after.

Lemurs

I
am also inspired to create something that is attractive and fun to a wide range
of people while being affordable. I
created my signature look called Slice Of Life, a long skinny slice of a scene. This serves a couple purposes for me,
allowing me to indulge in the graduated fabrics which make my ideas have more
depth and a long skinny size easier to quilt by hand on a domestic machine and
fit in more people’s space on a wall.
The size also keeps your eye moving up and down to different atmospheres
of the landscape, climate or daytime.

Wine Anytime

Do
you find that you lean toward certain color palettes?

I
don’t seem to really have a color palette that cries out to me, but a piece of fabric will draw me in and eventually an image comes to mind that
would be lovely on it. I wish I could
say I was an earthy color person or a pastel person, it would make life so much
easier. My friends think I am the odd ball
of the quilting world as I have very little stash, in fact probably less than
10 pounds! I gather fabric based on one
idea for a project. When I had the
Lemurs in mind, It took ages to collect greys, blacks, whites and all shades
in-between before I felt like I had enough to begin, but I had that background
fabric! So I treat myself to background
fabric and then 1/8 or ¼ yards of fabrics in colors I need.

Wood Ducks (left panel)

How
can we find you on the web? I keep my blogs under http://windyglenquilting.blogspot.com
and http://shutterbugok.blogspot.com and I sell my art on Etsy under the shop name
of Timelessdog. From time to time my
work gets showcased on The Quilt Show with Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson’s
section called Quilt Of The Day. The
latest were the Wood Ducks, The Humming Bird Garden in Yellows, and the Pink
Hummingbird panel, but many more have
been spotlighted, I just never seem to remember to post it.

Wood Ducks (right panel)

Do
you teach and if so, where can we find information about your classes? I use to teach but do not offer this any
longer but love to mentor any who ask.
I am self taught in the fiber world of spinning, weaving and quilting. One thing I always say to people is to create
what you like in the colors you like because first and foremost you have to
like it no matter what others think.
Once that is accomplished you give that work of art its courage to be
shown off proudly even with mistakes <G>!.